


exchanging contracts

by WellyFullOfAle



Series: Robron Week 2017 [3]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Contracts, Fluff, Love, M/M, fiances, fluffy fluff, happy robron, heartfelt discussion, reference to affair, robron - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 18:32:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10038644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WellyFullOfAle/pseuds/WellyFullOfAle
Summary: A couple of scenes I've decided to add in regarding the contracts for the Mill. Includes a tiny argument and a whole load of fluff, including references to their affair.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of Robron Week - You're the Boss.

Aaron may have won the auction over the phone, but Robert knew that was the least stressful part of it all.

His fiancé had been grinning from ear to ear all day, and he and Liv had spent hours discussing who was going get which bedroom, and he’d hated the thought of bursting his bubble in any way by chipping in with the logistics and legalities of it all.

He’d waited until Liv had gone to bed before he broached the subject.

“What’s up with your face,” Aaron had asked him, scowling in his direction. “Don’t you wanna move in with me anymore?”

Robert smiled back at him, resisting the eye roll, and he got up from where he was sat at the kitchen table and joined his fiancé on the sofa.

He reached over and kissed Aaron on the forehead, letting his hand glide lightly through the loose curls in his hair.

He resisted the urge to ruffle him; aware he wasn’t there for petting. He’d save that for when they were in the bedroom, as usual.

“Course I wanna live with you, you idiot,” Robert answered him gently.

“Why you being miserable, then?” Aaron answered him back.

Robert knew there was a hint of playfulness in his undercurrent; they seemed to resort to insults as some form of foreplay. They always had.

“Well, you do know what’s involved, don’t you?”

Aaron didn’t like being patronised, and the expression on his fiancés face told him that he was treading pretty close to the line between patronising and helpful.

“I don’t mean it like that, Aaron,” Robert insisted, back-peddling, feeling in the wrong despite only intending to bring reality into the equation.

“Go on, then, how do you mean it?” Aaron asked him, and there was a hint of exasperation in there, somewhat annoyed with Robert for wanting to bring the mood down.

Robert sighed, aware that he was seriously in danger of ruining the moment. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, but he couldn’t let him get carried away without knowing what was happening.

“I was just wondering, that’s all, what was in the paperwork?”

Robert tried to appear casual.

Aaron’s mood shifted somewhat as his gaze flicked down to the floor.

“Dunno,” Aaron admitted quietly.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Robert questioned him, eyes narrowing with concern.

“Well, I just placed the bid on the phone and then they called me in to go and sign some stuff,” Aaron explained, shrugging.

“So you have signed something then?” Robert confirmed, relieved.

“Yes,” Aaron insisted, widening his eyes as he glared at his fiancé, annoyed that he’d think he could be so frivolous.

“And what did it say?” Robert pushed further.

Aaron sighed, glare dropping again.

“Dunno,” he admitted quietly, aware that his admission would have Robert on his back immediately. “I didn’t really read it.”

Robert’s expression twisted into one of pure disbelief.

“What?” he questioned his fiancé, incredulous.

“Well it was all legal speak, weren’t it,” Aaron explained, in excuse, “and they’re a proper firm I’ve heard of them and everything, it’ll all be legit.”

Robert shook his head in outrage.

“Only you could buy a house without reading any of the contracts,” he muttered under his breath.

“Only you could try and ruin the mood by talking about contracts,” Aaron retorted.

“I have not ruined the mood,” Robert insisted, sullenly.

“Yeah you have,” Aaron replied, his tone sharp. “I’m panicking now thinking I’ve just transferred all my money to some con artist –”

“You’ve transferred all the money?” Robert interrupted him, raising his voice slightly, more in surprise than anything else, but it only made Aaron see red.

“Not all of it, Robert!” Aaron shouted back at him, offended that Robert thought he would be that impulsive. “Only the deposit,” he explained, exasperated.

Robert paused, feeling bad that they’d managed to descend into an argument over something that should be making them happy.

He sighed, standing up to make his way towards Aaron, placing his hands against his biceps and squeezing gently as he looked Aaron in the eye.

“Look, I’m sure it’s all fine,” he tried to comfort Aaron, his voice as soothing as he could muster. “Where’s the contract? I can read it over for you. Make sure it’s all legit – which I’m sure it is, before you say anything.”

Aaron shrugged, brushing Robert off before making his way over to the dresser, and pulling a disordered pile of paperwork out of the drawer.

“There you go, sir,” Aaron said, words dripping in sarcasm.

Robert took the papers from him, eyes not leaving his glare.

Robert spent almost 30 minutes eyeing over the details of the paperwork; Aaron watching him the whole time, spinning his engagement ring around his ring finger as he waited for Robert’s verdict.

He might have been annoyed at Robert for dragging the mood down, but he’d known deep down that he didn’t really know what he was doing with the contract, and a part of him was thankful that he had Robert to deal with all of that side of things.

After what seemed like a lifetime, Robert looked back over to him, and Aaron’s agitated state settled when he saw the smile on Robert’s face.

“You’ve signed an official offer form, and they’ve given you an acceptance document by the looks of it, which legally speaking secures the property for you until the full paperwork gets sorted and the contracts are exchanged,” Robert explained to him. “I’ll call my lawyer tomorrow and arrange to get these looked at, and he can deal with the rest of the conveyance. It usually takes a couple of months but there should be a fairly quick exchange of contracts, seeing as you’re a cash buyer, and there’s no chain obviously, because it’s uninhabited.”

Aaron tried to hide the confusion in his expression, but he knew Robert had picked up on it. He always picked up on it.

“Don’t worry, my lawyer will sort it all,” Robert reassured him, as he placed a quick kiss against his lips.

Aaron laughed, and rolled his eyes, and Robert realised he was mocking him.

He narrowed his eyes and took a step backwards, offended at his fiancé’s nerve.

“What?” he questioned him light-heartedly, could sense some remark brewing.

“Who has their own lawyer, anyway?” Aaron asked, and it was accompanied with a playful smirk.

“Your fiancé, that’s who,” Robert replied, and he followed it up with another kiss.

 

-s-

 

They’d been waiting in the lawyer’s office for 10 minutes so far, sat side by side in the small waiting room, and the receptionist had apologised to them 3 times already.

“He’s stuck in a meeting, it could be a while,” she’d warned them, and Robert had asked her if there was any way to speed it up, but she’d said it was important and that they’d have to wait.

“You need a new lawyer,” Aaron whispered to him after she left, teasing.

“Shut up,” Robert replied, giving his fiancé a playful shove. “At least I’ve got one.”

Aaron laughed at that.

“Bit dodgy, I reckon, needing a lawyer on call,” Aaron taunted him, his smile reaching his eyes.

“Says the Dingle?” Robert retorted, smirking playfully at his fiancé.

“Fair point,” Aaron conceded under his breath, and they shared a brief laugh between them.

The settled into the brief silence for a moment, before Aaron had a moment of realisation at the gravity of what they were sat waiting for.

“Can you believe we’ve bought our own place?” he asked.

Aaron seemed genuinely dumbstruck when the words passed his lips.

Robert looked up at him and smiled, excitement bubbling up inside of him despite his suave appearance.

“Well, technically, you and Liv have bought a place, and you’re letting me live there rent free,” Robert corrected him.

Aaron frowned and looked up at his fiancé.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“Well, you and Liv have paid for it. It’s your place,” Robert explained casually; couldn’t understand why Aaron was questioning what he thought was stating the obvious.

There was a pause, and Robert watched Aaron’s expression brighten, leaving behind a small smile on his face as he realised that Robert hadn’t noticed all of the minor details on the paperwork.

“You’ve not done a very good job at checking over that paperwork, have you?” Aaron smirked at him.

Robert frowned, not seeing his fiancé’s point.

Aaron picked up the brown envelope that lay on the glass table in front of them in the waiting room, and fished out the papers from inside.

He shuffled them about, so that the form he needed was on the top of the pile, and he passed them to his fiancé.

Robert shot him a quizzical look.

“Look at it,” Aaron ordered, gesturing down towards the paperwork.

Robert looked down, eyes searching over the page in his hands. It looked familiar – he’d read through all of the small print on it that morning as he’d eaten breakfast – but he stilled when Aaron leant over and pointed at the bit he hadn’t noticed earlier.

His name.

His name, next to Aaron’s name, and Liv’s name.

On the deeds for the house.

Block capitols; black ball point pen.

AARON DINGLE. ROBERT SUGDEN. OLIVIA FLAHERTY.

That’s what it said.

He beamed.

As in, the smile from his face shone out from him, and the room filled with his happiness.

He didn’t think three names scribbled together could have such meaning for him.

His family.

“But you paid for it?” Robert questioned, and his voice was quiet all of a sudden; unsure of himself, as if he didn’t want to believe it until he knew that Aaron was making the right decision.

Aaron rolled his eyes, and after they’d completed their circle, they fixed onto him in the waiting room.

“Robert, it’s our home,” Aaron smiled to him, aware that Robert’s breath had hitched in his throat at those words. “Not that the money is important – it never has been, and you know that – but you’re paying for the renovations, so between the three of us, we’ve all chipped in. And, Robert, I have spoken to Liv about this, before you ask. She assumed this would be how it is anyway. She knows we hold her share in trust for her until she’s 18 anyway. And then it’s the 3 of us, joint tenants or something.”

“Are you sure?” Robert asked, and his eyes searched over Aaron’s face as if they were expecting to find some seed of doubt.

It didn’t materialise.

“Of course I’m sure, Robert,” he confirmed, and Robert thought he recognised something like pride wash over his husband-to-be’s expression.

Robert leant over and kissed his fiancé lightly, placing a hand on his knee as he did so.

“Thank you, Aaron. I wasn’t expecting it, honestly.”

Aaron placed his hand on top of Roberts where he’d placed it on his knee.

It was such as simple gesture, but it was so familiar to them now, and Aaron couldn’t imagine something ever making him happier.

“Well, if we’re getting married then what’s mine is yours anyway, innit?” Aaron said with a glint in his eye.

Robert smiled, his heart beat increasing at Aaron’s mention of them getting married; at their lives finally becoming intertwined for good.

“True,” Robert responded, with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, technically, these days, buying a place together is a bigger commitment than getting married, anyway.”

“How’s that?” Aaron frowned at him.

“Harder to get out of,” Robert smirked.

Aaron snorted, giving Robert a playful backhanded slap against his knee.

“Good job I’m never gonna wanna get out of it, then,” he replied, and although the smile on his face could imply he was joking, there was a sincerity about the way that Aaron looked at him, that made Robert sure that he meant every single word of it.

He knew, because felt exactly the same.

The receptionist interrupted their loving gaze as she appeared with a tray of tea, coffee and biscuits; full of apologies for their wait, insisting Robert’s lawyer wouldn’t be much longer.

Aaron couldn’t help but smile at the expression on his fiancé’s face – the stern look he gave her, telling her that it wasn’t good enough, really, and that he hoped they weren’t including waiting time in his hourly fee, and that if they weren’t seen soon then he’d be taking his legal affairs to another firm in Hotten.

She’d apologised profusely, and vowed to hurry it along as best she can.

Robert’s expression softened as soon as his attention moved back to Aaron.

Aaron noticed it, and his heart overflowed a little more with the love he had for Robert; with the way that this strong, confident man had a whole different softer side to him, that he reserved only for Aaron.

“Can you believe we’ve made it here?” Aaron asked him, and the words surprised even himself as they tumbled out of him.

Robert narrowed his eyes as he tried to understand Aaron’s meaning.

“What, Hotten?” he asked, nonchalantly.

Aaron exhaled as he shoved Robert playfully in the arm.

“Shut up,” he berated him, light heartedly. “No, I mean, _here._ Buying a house together, getting married. Can you believe it?”

Robert understood him then, and his lips twisted up into a smile, tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip and pulling it back between his teeth.

He leant in and kissed Aaron – longer this time than last – letting their foreheads rest against one another before dipping in for another peck.

“I love you,” he muttered under his breath; for only Aaron to hear.

Aaron clenched his jaw, as surprised by Robert’s public declaration as he was by the way he kissed him so easily in public now.

“I thought you said this wasn’t a love story,” Aaron quipped, teasing. He couldn’t resist.

Robert pulled away from him slightly, rolling his eyes as he shook his head in mock offence.

“Here we go, again,” he let out under his breath.

In all honesty, Robert secretly liked it when Aaron brought up their affair days. There was a lot he hadn’t been proud of back then – things he’d said to Aaron; the way he’d treated him sometimes – but for both of them, there was the memory of the fire with which they loved each other. It had been exciting, and it had been dangerous, and they’d fallen in love with each other regardless of consequence or expectation.

It was the greatest love story of their lives.

And they both knew that now; both knew that their happily-ever-after, or more likely their messed-up-together-forever was all that existed in the path ahead for them now.

“You do know, though, don’t you?” Robert asked Aaron, and his tone was dripping in sincerity again.

He often laughed off Aaron’s off hand comments about their affair days, but there was something about this situation they were in – something about the seriousness of them entering into a legally binding contract to buy a house that would see them legally tied to one another for as long as they wanted to stay there – that made him want to address it all directly; that filled him with the need to make sure Aaron _knew,_ exactly how it all was for him.

“Know what?” Aaron questioned, although there was a hint of something in Aaron’s stare that Robert suspected meant he wanted him to continue, aware of the path he was heading down.

“Know what you always meant to me, even back then?” Robert clarified.

He saw how Aaron’s shoulders tensed up, and his jaw clenched as if he was biting the inside of his gums, and his expression turned to something resembling need, and longing.

He didn’t say anything; but he didn’t need to.

Robert could read him – had always been able to read him – and he knew that Aaron had been waiting for him to address this.

So he intended to; because despite having joked about it, they’d never fully discussed the time they fell in love with one another.

“You know that I fancied you even before I knew you were gay, don’t you?” Robert asked.

He could see the way Aaron tried to hide his smile; had never been comfortable with any form of compliment, least of all when it meant something to him.

“Shut up,” he whispered out, and he glanced over at the reception desk to check that the receptionist wasn’t listening.

Robert knew already she was out of earshot, and he wasn’t sure he even cared if she wasn’t.

He wanted Aaron to hear all of this.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you after you told me,” Robert started, and he knew then he wouldn’t be able to stop. “I tried to stop myself, you know. I tried to tell myself you were a bad idea. But you were just always _there,_ all brooding in the corner of the pub or wherever, and I had this urge to get to know you.”

Robert paused, as if he was waiting for some interjection from Aaron, telling him to stop it, telling him to stop being such a softlad and to go back to talking about lawyers, or something boring.

It didn’t come though. Instead, he locked his eyes on Aaron’s, and knew from the look in his eyes that Aaron wanted more.

He spoke slowly, and confidently, and his gaze didn’t leave Aaron’s as he explained it all to him.

“I know I told you once that there were others. There were _before_ you, but not after. I couldn’t see past you, Aaron. I’d always been able to stop at one. It hadn’t happened loads – I don’t want you to think you were just another number to me, because as much as you might have thought it back then, and as much as I might have wanted you to believe it at one point, you were always more than that. You were always different. I hadn’t been looking for anything when we met; when I found you. In my head back then, I was so close to getting everything that would have proven myself to my dad – and that’s what it had been about, really – and I really didn’t want to mess it up.”

Robert noticed the shift in Aaron’s expression as he mentioned his father; felt his hand tighten its grip against Roberts thigh, where it had been placed casually.

But Aaron was still looking at him, as if he needed more, and Robert still wanted to tell him everything.

“You might not know it, Aaron, but you were the first person that _saw_ me. The real me. At Andy’s wedding that Christmas – when I put my foot in it, again – the way that you stood by me meant everything. And I knew then, really – I knew I was in trouble. When we were together that night, I remember thinking to myself that it was our third time, and that there was no going back. Once, I’d done before. Twice, I could have convinced myself that was it. But three times was too much for me to try and deny I wasn’t crazy about you.”

“I was crazy about you, too, y’know,” Aaron interrupted; felt he needed to say it. “Right from the start.”

“I know,” Robert replied, and he smiled at his fiancé, and he leant in and placed a kiss against his bitten lips. “I know you were. And I knew it back then, too. I could always see it, in the way you looked at me. I’ll forever be sorry for the things I did to you back then, Aaron. For some of the things I said to you; for the way it must have made you feel –”

“It’s OK,” Aaron interrupted, but Robert placed his hand out to stop him.

“It’s not OK,” Robert continued. “And I am sorry, I hope you know that –”

“I do,” Aaron assured him; and he really did.

Robert nodded, and let the glimmer of a smile wash over him.

He’d noticed the tears creeping into Aaron’s eyes as he’d spoken, and he’d caught the tears that fell with his thumb a few times, and he’d almost not wanted to continue, for fear of causing the tears to worsen.

“Good,” he nodded, before continuing. “I know we had some… some –”

“Shit times,” Aaron finished his sentence for him playfully, and it made him laugh.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Robert returned his fiancés smile. “I know it wasn’t perfect – or anywhere near perfect. But I never doubted you. And I never stopped loving you, either. And there were times, even when I was still with Chrissie, when you genuinely made me happier than I’d ever thought possible.

“Do you know what the worst parts, were, Rob?” Aaron’s voice was small, and it was almost apologetic, but it punctuated the air between them, already heavy with the weight of Robert’s words. “Knowing you weren’t really mine,” he choked up as the words left him. “Like when I had to leave that hotel you’d booked for us, or when I had to pack my bag back up and leave your bed after spending the week in there when Chrissie was due back. It hurt me so much, Robert –”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Robert choked; could feel the threat of something prickling behind his own eyes. “It hurt me too, I promise you. I felt all of it. I always did – you were never on your own with it. I just – I just couldn’t show you, or tell you, that you weren’t alone. And there was this side of me – practically all of me, at times – that just wanted to walk away from her and to start a new life with you. I even asked you once – remember?”

He waited for Aaron’s nod in reply.

“But I wasn’t ready, then. There were things I hadn’t come to terms with, and there was a part of me that needed to stay with Chrissie and to try and be the person my dad would have wanted me to be. And I let that tiny detail dictate everything I did. But now that’s gone, and all that’s left, Aaron, is the fact that I love you, and I want to make you happy. You’re not alone, you’ve got me now, and I want you to be able to rely on me. I love you. You do know that, don’t you?”

Aaron’s features broke into a smile, and Robert’s heart filled with love at the sight of it.

“Yeah, I do know,” Aaron confirmed for Robert, and he felt relief flood through him again. “I might not be the best at showing it, or talking about it all, Rob. But I know what this is,” he pointed a finger between himself and Robert. “And I know that it took us a while to get here, but that we got here ourselves, and I’m proud of us for that.”

Robert smiled at his man, and looked down to his chest as he felt the heat of Aaron’s palm against his shirt, above where his heart beat for him.

“Because of this,” he said, and Robert knew precisely what he meant.

He felt the charge of electricity pass between their gaze, and he sighed heavily; catching the breath that his fiancé had just taken away from him.

It was such as small gesture – Aaron’s touch against his skin, through his shirt – but the sentimentality of it; of his fiancé pressing his hand against his heart, and telling him that he was proud of them, and what they’d created together, because of the way their hearts were bound together; because of the way they beat for each other, always.

He noticed Aaron’s gaze shifting to the space behind them, and he followed the path of his vision to see the Receptionist stood behind them.

“He’s ready for you now,” she stuttered, almost in apology for breaking them apart.

They both stood up in unison, thanking her, tinged with resentment that she’d interrupted the most heartfelt discussion they’d had in a while.

Aaron let his arms drop to his sides, and Robert lifted his hands to the sides of Aaron’s face, and pulled him in for a kiss.

“Let’s go sign our lives away,” Robert teased as he pulled away, taking Aaron’s hand, and leading them down the hallway to his lawyer’s office.


End file.
